Portable floor



.r I 1 t PORTABLE FLOOR J. H. HANNAY Filed Dec. 16. 1924 July 14, 1925.

Patented July 14, 1925.

UNITED STATES JAMES HENRY HANNAY, F HYTHE, KENT. ENGLAND.

PORTABLE FLOOR.

Application filed December 16, 1924. Serial No. 756,249.

' of which the following is a specification;

This invention relates to a wooden floor tennis court, which is of suchconstruction that the floor is composed of uniform interchangeablesections which can be manufactured in a factory and-transported to aplace where parallel longitudinal girders are arranged equi-distant toreceive the sections, which can be readily placed in position and boltedtogether, and when not required disassembled and the various sectionsstored until the court is again required for use. I

The tennis court comprises a number of piles fixed in the ground, (whichmay be uneven), and which are arranged in longitudinal and lateraldirections at equal distances apart, having all their upper ends in onehorizontal plane. Girders are provided extending and bedding on theupper ends of each parallel line of piles in one direction. A pluralityof uniform sections are then constructed to compose the surface of thetennis court, each section being composed of a plurality of joists, towhich are attached parallel boards at right angles to the joists, theboards being at a short distance apart. The joists besides beingequi-distant from each other are located longitudinally of the boards adistance equal to half the width of a joist nearer to one end of thesection than to the other.

' This affords an overlap beyond the outside joist the width of onejoist greater at one end of the section than at the other end of thesection. The joists are of greater length than the width of the section,so that the ends of the joists all project beyond at both sides.

The result of this formation is that the sections may be laid across thegirders, the ends of the joists resting upon the said girders, and thesections can be laid with the projecting ends of the joists alongsideeach other by alternately laying the sections in reverse directions,namely with the narrow portion of the overlap of one sect-ion towardsthe end of the court and the next section with the broader part of theoverlap to the end of the court. In this way the sections althoughuniform may be laid square with each other with their ends in line andwith the oints overlapping each other at thelocation of the girderswhere they may be bolted securely together. At the overlapping portionsof each section and running transversely of-the longitudinal directionof the court, wider joists are laid to receive the ends of the boardsforming the sections. lhese wider joists may be attached to one sectionpermanently, and during assembly the boards of the adjacent section maybe secured to them.

Fig. 1 is a plan View showing a section of the platform and portions ofadjacent sections, and indicating the girders and the joists by dottedlines. Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken on the line XY of Fig. 1, andshows two of the piles in elevation.

Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal section. and Fig. 4 is a sideelevation, showing the PATENT OFFICE."

connections of the ends of the joists of one section to the ends of thejoists of an adjacent section.

Fig. 5 is a. vertical section showing the wider end joist of a section,and-indicating by dotted lines the boards of the adjacent sect-ionoverlapping half of the joists, Fig. 6 being a plan view of the portsshown at Fig. 5.

Referring more particularly to Figs. ,1

and 2, piles l, which may conveniently be' i made of wood but might beof other material such as concrete, are fixed at their lower ends in theground which is indicated at 2, there being no occasion to level theground prior to erecting the tennis court, and the upper ends of thepiles 1 are arranged so that the said upper ends are contained in onehorizontal plane. The piles are arranged in lines at distances apartlongitudinally, usually as shown, so that the piles are at a distanceapart'in alongitudinal direction, corresponding to a slightly greaterdistance than the length of a single section of the platform, and-thelongitudinal lines of piles are parallel to each other, and the distanceapart of-the piles transversely of the length of the court, is aboutequal to the width of a section of the platform.

Girders 3, which may conveniently be metal girders, are mounted parallelto each other so that each upon each row of piles extendinglongitudinally of" the court, and the'girders may be girder extends andsits ends of the piles; obviously each girder may be built-up of anumber of lengths united as by butt-jeint plates or other well knownmeans; there are therefore a plurality of consisting of larch or otherwood suitable for exposure out-doors.

It will be observed by referenceto Fig. 1 that the boards IO at one endof the section are not fixed to a joist, while the boards in the samesection at the opposite end extend half way across the top of the'joist'9 which is wider than the other joists.

The ends of the joists .4 to 8 extend beyond the boards 10 and rest uponthe girders 3, and the joists are displaced a distance of half the widthof a joist with respect to the length of the boards 10 forming asection,

and by this arrangement the ends of the joists of one section, say theupper section in the drawing Fig. 1, overlaps the ends of the joists ofthe lower section, and the overlapping ends of these joists can then bebolted together as is clearly shown at F igs- 3 and 4, where the partsare marked with corresponding reference numerals.

Figs. 5 and 6 clearly show the connection of the boards 10 to the endjoist Q of a section,and the parts are also marked with correspondingreference numerals.

I Obviously where the piles or pillars, such as 1, are built inconcrete, in which case box moulds can readily be used, such piles mayconveniently have enlarged bases for distributing the weight over alarge area of ground.

" It is preferable in the assembly of the various sections, to arrangethat one junction of the ends of the sections coincides with theposition cf the net, and it is essential that the sections be arrangedwith the surface boards running longitudinally of the length ofthe'court.

Courts constructed according to this invention require no raking over,watering, or rolling, andonce the marking of the court has been drawnand painted, the marking becomes permanent, and can be readil renovatedeach year by paintingover t e last years markings. The surface afterhours of play will'be found-to be still in perfect level, and theelasticity of the surfaceconipared to a hard court is-extremelybeneficial and saves the players frommuch fatigue. The court isavailable for pl a few minutes after heavy rain, by the slmple use of a.

squeegee over the court, which ejects the water through the spacesbetween the boards and prevents free water standing. ()bvieus- 1y. also,there is no dust during play.

When the court is to be in disuse for any considerable time, thesections may be re: moved and stored under cover, and by constructingthe girders and stakes or p1les of iron, all distortion by warpingcanybe completely eliminated.

What I claim as my invention and desire I to secure by Letters Patent isA portable flooring comprising a plurality of similar. sections, eachsection composed of a plurality ofjoists arranged in substantiallyparallel spaced relation, flooring secured to the joists, the ends ofthe joists extending beyond the sides of the flooring, said flooringextending beyond the outer joists, said floor extension at one end beinggreater by only the width of a joist than the extension at the otherend, substantially as specified.

. In witness whereof I have hereunto set .my hand in thepresence of twoWitnesses.

JAMES HENRY HANNAY.

Witnesses GRIFFITH BREWER, P. D. Rooms.-

